KotOR: A Matter of Looks
by Sabby87
Summary: A celebration after Malak's defeat. Carth watches Revan dance... WARNING: lots of Carth/Revan fluff inside:D Since this is my first KotOR fic and English is not my native language, reviews would be *very* appreciated... thanks! *UPDATED*


The hall was a triumph of colorful dresses and glittering jewellery. A gorgeous handcrafted chandelier hung from the ceiling, light drops falling from its sparkling pendants onto the elegantly dressed people who were now crowding the dance floor.

Revan was there. She was beautiful in her dress of Alderaanian facture, and Carth could not stand it. He just couldn't. He couldn't bear the sight of her smooth movements, the way her body was tangled with the one of His-Royal-Highness-the-Prince-of-whatever-it-was, with whom she was dancing.

But what hurt him the most was that blazing look in her eyes. If one looked straight into their hazel deepness, one would almost be able to _feel_ all the joy and the excitement _she_ felt in dancing. Grace and cheerfulness seemed to emanate from her like a blessed aura which enchanted whoever met her gaze.

Carth forced himself to look away from her. He hadn't even noticed the man who was now standing beside him, some decorated veteran whose name he wasn't able to remember at the moment. Carth absently answered his greetings, his eyes focused on the medal resting on his broad chest, his mind lingering in the past.

"_I prefer to keep my past behind me. The horrors of war are hard enough to live through once."_

"_The horrors of war"? My people know only the glory of battle! I'm disappointed in you, Carth. I thought a warrior like you would understand."_

"_I'm not a warrior; I'm a soldier. Warriors attack and conquer. They prey on the weak. __Soldiers protect the innocent, mostly from warriors."_

"_Yeah, "war's a hard job but someone has to do it". There was more than a note of despise in Canderous' voice. "How touching. I bet you tell yourself that every night so that you can sleep. But you know what, "soldier?" Don't think you're _that _different from me. Or from that Darth-Whoever, for that matter. In a war there are no good guys and bad guys. Only individuals with the same chance of living or dying. No matter their rank, no matter what they tell themselves they are fighting for, they can only choose between killing or being killed, honoring themselves or fleeing like cowards. War makes everyone equal."_

War _had_ made _them_ equal, indeed. As long as they had been fighting Malak, their destinies had been linked. They had been together, two players in a bigger game. Now it was peacetime. She was the savior of the Republic, and he was just a Republic Admiral who couldn't dance.

Revan was now dancing with a handsome young dignitary. The music had changed, but not that blazing look in her eyes, a look he'd never share with her. He felt a sudden twinge of envy against the young man and his apparently innate ability to whirl at an almost incredible speed retaining his sleek smile.

Not that he had never tried.

_A moonlit alley on Telos. Soft music coming from an open window. The limpid sound of Morgana laughing as he grabbed her waist and clumsily tried to follow the rhythm. Her black hair cascading down her shoulders as he made her twirl. The soft touch of her skin on his chin as he kissed her forehead._

This wasn't Telos. And this wasn't Mo.

This was Revan. It wasn't always easy to be in love with the woman who had once held the whole Galaxy in her grasp. He had to admit that, in a sense, she made him afraid. She was his second chance, he knew it; what he didn't know, was whether he deserved to be _hers_.

Carth suddenly heard the sound of familiar footsteps. Revan had come to the table to drink something. The blazing look had vanished from her eyes. She let herself fall on a chair next to Carth.

"Admiral Onasi" she said cheerfully. "You're still here. I would have been very offended if you had gone away without even asking me to dance."

"I'm not going to" he replied, with a grin.

"Too old for this sort of things?"

"Ah, if you put it that way…"

He raised her up all of a sudden and surrounded her waist with his arm, turning her upside down and making her head bang onto the table.

"Are you okay?" he asked, as more and more people crowded around them, called by the noise and her sudden moan.

"Maybe you've missed some lessons, flyboy" she chuckled, still holding him tight. Her eyes were even brighter as they sparkled with small tears.

Carth smiled. He definitely would have to resign to the fact that he would never share that blazing look with her. But the wet, playfully rebuking look that had appeared in her eyes was all his.


End file.
